
Notable Inventions of the 1840s
Dates for inventions are often controversial. Inventions are often invented by several inventors around the same time, or may be invented in an impractical form many years before another inventor improves the invention into a practical form. Where there is ambiguity, the date of the first working version of the invention is used here.
1840: Screw-propelled frigate, USS Princeton: John Ericsson
1840: artificial fertilizer: Justus von Liebig
1842: Anaesthesia: Crawford Long
1843: Typewriter: Charles Thurber
1843: Fax machine: Alexander Bain
1843: Ice cream maker: Nancy Johnson
1845: Portland cement: William Aspdin
1845: Double tube tire: Robert Thomson (inventor)
1846: Sewing machine: Elias Howe
1846: Rotary printing press: Richard M. Hoe
1849: Safety pin: Walter Hunt
1849: Francis turbine: James B. Francis
1849: Telephone: Antonio Meucci